The Pursuit of Dreams
by Haha Pseudonym
Summary: The pursuit of dreams can lead to straying too far from reality. And sometimes, it's too far to come back. But are dreams better than reality? Is living in falsehood better than the truth? I QUIT THIS STORY.
1. Escape From Privet Drive

**The Pursuit of Dreams**

**I thought I might give my own stereotypical AU a go and this is what came of it.**

**NOTE: I don't actually know the names of Hermione's parents but I read Emma and Dan in a different fic that I can't remember the name of, but credit to that author.**

**I'm not quite J.K Rowling, but I have been told the resemblance is uncanny. Actually no... no I haven't. So resemblance or no, I don't own Harry Potter.**

Harry sat by the window at the Dursley's and watched as rain trickled down the pane. He was exempt from the gardening today as Aunt Petunia had thought he wouldn't do a satisfactory job because it was raining. His usual chores that needed to be done inside were still waiting for him but he was too comfortable to move right then.

Excitement rose within him as he remembered that this was the day he was to be heading to the Weasley's for the rest of the summer. Ron had sent Pig over with multiple reminders that today was the day that they would be coming to pick him up.

To say that Harry was excited about leaving was an understatement. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had been distant, only asking Harry to do his chores in clipped tones. They had been quick to ignite though. Quicker than usual. Even so much as a muttered word that wasn't "Yes Aunt Petunia" or "Of course Uncle Vernon" was reprimanded. Dudley had been particularly horrid about Harry's nightmares and his parents being dead was a usual topic of conversation between the cousins- not that it really counted as conversation.

Ron and Hermione had been distant as well. Their letters hadn't given any indication of what they had been doing this summer and Harry had no idea where Hermione even was.

Today was the day that would change though because they couldn't ignore him if they were face to face.

"Boy!" came Uncle Vernon's shout from downstairs. "The dishes aren't done and the shelves haven't been dusted. Get down here." Harry stood and trudged down the stairs with slumped shoulders.

"Dad's really mad at you _freak_." said Dudley as he shouldered his way past Harry. Harry ignored him and continued into the kitchen.

As he walked through the door Vernon roughly grabbed Harry's hair and put his purple face right in close. "Get started boy. I better not catch you slacking again." letting go of Harry's hair and shoving him into the kitchen, Vernon proceeded to go and plop down on the couch.

Harry began to work on the dishes while his relatives sat around the TV watching some stupid reality show. Harry scrubbed each dish to perfection. After rinsing, drying and putting the dishes away, he moved on to dust the shelves and wipe the counter tops for good measure.

Once finished, Harry returned to his room and re-read one of Ron's letters.

_Hey mate,_

_How is it with the muggles. Hope they're not being too horrible._

_Mum won't quit talking about you. "Oh, the poor boy, must be so _

_horrible with those people." You know how she is. Can't wait to _

_you out of there though. Dad and I are coming to get you on friday _

_at 3:00. See you then. I gotta go, Ginny's spouting some garbage_

_about Fred and George stealing her sweater. Total load of dung though,_

_I stole it. Anyway, I'll see you on Friday. Hang in there until then okay?_

_From Ron. _

Harry glanced at the clock. 1:30 it read. Less than a couple of hours and he would be out of Privet Drive for the rest of the holidays.

He turned to the mess of clothes and junk that covered his trunk and sighed. He was going to have to clean that up. Not for the first time he wished that he was allowed to do magic outside of school so that he could do it with just a wave of his wand.

An hour later saw the room with a near bursting trunk, an overflowing bin and a skinny teenager flopped on a neatly made bed.

Harry stared at the ceiling and willed time to move faster. He looked over at the clock and to his frustration it only read four minutes later than when he had last checked. With a sigh he rolled off his bed and trudged over to his trunk and resigned himself to sorting through it again.

After forty minutes of sorting through his trunk and making trips to empty his bin, Harry looked at the clock and saw that the time was 3:20. He snorted to himself. Of course the Weasleys would be late.

He perused the bookshelf looking for something interesting. Not that he actually intended on reading any of the books. A knock sounded from downstairs. Harry shot out the door and bounded down the stairs to answer the door before Aunt Petunia had even left the living room.

To Harry's surprise, the door opened to reveal not a Weasley, but Hermione.

"Hey Harry" she burst out before hugging him. "How've you been?"

"I-er-good I guess. Aaah- not that I'm not glad to see you or anything- but what are you doing here?" Harry stuttered.

"Oh it was a very last minute thing- last minute meaning that we only found out thirty minutes ago- but my parents are taking us to the burrow. I was heading there anyway so Mr. Weasley asked us to swing by your place and bring you along." she explained.

Now that he had gotten over the shock of seeing her, Harry noticed that Hermione looked different. Her hair was pulled back in a very bushy ponytail and she wasn't leaning over under the weight of a dozen books.

"Boy, who is it?" came Uncle Vernon's shout from the lounge room. Hermione looked a little shocked but entered the house, moving past Harry to see his relatives plopped on the couch like dumplings.

"This is my friend from school- Hermione. She is here to pick me up." Harry informed them. "Hermione, this is my Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley." he said gesturing to each of them in turn.

Dudley looked slightly shellshocked while Petunia screwed up her nose in distaste. It was Vernon who proved to be the most unpleasant though when he said to them, "Well take the boy and be off with you. We don't need any more freakishness in this house."

"Come one Hermione let's just get my trunk and we can go" said Harry with an annoyed look sent in the direction of his relatives.

With that the two teenagers went upstairs to Harry's room. When he opened the door, Harry became very glad that he had cleaned his room. Grabbing his trunk and Hedwig's cage, Harry made to leave his room but before he got the chance, Hermione snatched Hedwig's cage from him.

"I'll take that" she said before marching out the door. The pair tromped down the stairs and headed straight for the door leaving the Dursleys with nothing but a shout of "Bye" from Harry.

They walked towards a silver car that was parked in the driveway. Hermione opened the boot and gestured for Harry to put his trunk inside, next to hers. Harry did so before Hermione shut the boot and the par hopped in on either side of the car. Hedwig came to rest between Harry's feet and Hermione placed Crookshanks- who had previously been sitting on the seat- on her lap.

"You must be Harry" said Hermione's mother who had turned around in the passenger seat. "It's a pleasure to meet you, we've heard so much about you." Harry glanced over at Hermione who flushed a bit.

"The pleasure is mine Mrs. Granger" he said, shaking the offered hand.

"Please call me Emma, Mrs Granger makes me feel old. This is my husband Dan" said Mrs. Gra- Emma.

"Nice to meet you Harry. Have you been enjoying your holidays?" said Dan.

"Yes thank you sir." replied Harry who was beginning to notice that the two dentists were extremely amicable towards him considering that they ha never met.

"Well then, we're off to see the Weasleys" said Dan starting the car.

**Well, there you have it. The first chapter. Not much has happened but it will heat up later. In the mean time please shoot me a review or a PM with any comments or queries and I might even get the next chapter up soon. **

**Thanks for reading.**


	2. The Burrow

**The Pursuit of Dreams**

**Righteo guys, here is the second chapter which will feature the plot so get excited because something will be happening.**

**I know I took FOREVER to update but I hope you guys like this chapter. **

**Thanks to my reviewers and followers who inspired me to write the second chapter. A special mention to Msupernatural who sent a meaningful review and gave my story some direction.**

**Sorry it is so late, I'm not exactly the fastest or most regular writer.**

**Oh and something I forgot to mention in the last chapter, this is set after The Goblet of Fire but we are totally disregarding the Order of the Phoenix.**

**Also, no matter how much I may or may not look like J.K. Rowling, I don't own Harry Potter.**

After a few hours of driving, talking and listening to Dan and Emma sing along to Beatles songs, they finally reached the Burrow.

Harry's arrival at the Weasleys place was his strangest yet. Not because he had come in muggle transport with Hermione's family- though this was a factor- but because the burrow was actually quiet.

Normally, there were objects moving around on their own and gnomes running around being chased by a red haired teenager. Now though, it seemed even the gnomes had fallen silent.

He pointed this out to Hermione once they had bade her parents goodbye.

"I don't know Harry" she responded, "Maybe we should go inside and check it out." They went inside and Hermione directed him to the living room which Harry noticed was completely dark.

Hermione gave a cough and suddenly the lights turned on and a bunch of people jumped out of hiding places with a shouts of "SURPRISE!" Hermione joined their shout while Harry jumped back in surprise before relaxing and smiling at his friends.

He looked around seeing all of the Weasleys, Hagrid, the real Mad-eye Moody, Lupin and Sirius along with a bunch of unfamiliar faces. Every single one of them was smiling or laughing.

Looking up Harry saw a large banner the said "Happy Birthday Harry" in large letters that were constantly changing colour.

"Hello Harry dear" said Mrs Weasley who came up to Harry and gave him a warm hug. "We know it's a week late, but we still wanted to celebrate your birthday."

"Thank you Mrs Weasley, this is great" replied Harry. Ron came over to Harry as Mrs Weasley left.

"Happy birthday mate." said Ron, "big fifteen year-old now" he teased, ruffling Harry's hair.

Before Harry could respond he was surrounded by people wishing him happy birthday and introducing themselves. Just when Harry was beginning to feel smothered, Hermione appeared at his arm and dragged him out of the crowd.

"Sorry about all the secrecy, but I suppose that's the whole point of a surprise." she said with a grin.

"You knew about all this?" Harry said in surprise. Hermione chuckled and nodded.

"What, did you think _Ron_ could plan a party? No it was all Mrs Weasley and me. Tonks tried to help but she kept toppling the decorations so we made her sit this one out." she explained.

"Thanks for all this then, you and Mrs Weasley." Harry replied.

The party continued and Harry went around and met all the people who had turned up. After that though he enjoyed his time with the Weasley children and Hermione. After an hour or two a glorious feast of Mrs Weasley's cooking was laid out on a bunch of tables put end on end. Every now and then Harry would come across a dish brought by some well meaning soul but was generally left untouched next to Mrs Weasley's cooking.

Outside, where they had been eating, it slowly got darker as twilight fell upon the party. Everyone had been sitting around and letting their meals settle. Soon enough a large cake was being brought out.

"Harry dear come over here." called Mrs Weasley from in front of the cake.

Harry stood from his spot between Ron and Fred to join Mrs Weasley. It seemed everyone else had gathered around the table too. Mrs Weasley hurried into the house before returning with a massive cake cradled in her arms.

Then people began to sing.

"Happy Birthday to you!" Harry glanced over at a grinning Ron.

"Happy Birthday to you!" Hermione laughed as Fred and George swayed with their arms wrapped around each other and sang as loudly as they could while keeping out of tune and off key.

"Happy Birthday dear Harry!" Harry received a few pats on the back and Ron ruffled his hair.

"Happy birthday to you!" As he looked around Harry decided that he couldn't be any happier.

Cheers sounded and Harry blew out his candles and made a wish. _"I wish my parents could have been here to see this" _he wished.

The stars twinkled and Harry was bustled out of the way so that Mrs Weasley could cut up her marvellous creation of a cake.

Pieces were handed out and guests happily spooned Mrs Weasley's delicious cake into their mouths. The rest of the night was wonderful, people celebrated or chatted merrily with others.

When the time came for people to go home and for the Weasley clan to go to bed Harry was well fed, happy and sleepy. This combination led him to fall asleep almost immediately after laying down.

The next morning Harry woke up, put on his glasses and rubbed his eyes blearily as he walked down the stairs.

"Morning Harry!" called Mr. Weasley. "Did you have a good night?"

"Yes th-thank you" he replied while failing to stifle a yawn.

"I'm so glad you and your parents decided to visit, it's been a while since we've seen you Potters" said Mr. Weasley cheerily.

"I'm sorry _what?_" Harry was shocked. Mr. Weasley had just said Potters as if there were more than one. He had said _parents _as if they were alive.

Harry was still gaping at the red haired man when two people walked into the room. A beautiful auburn haired woman and a skinny black haired man with glasses. Harry looked at them in shock.

"Mum, Dad?"

**I know, I'm evil leaving it there but who knows, I might just put up another chapter soon.**


	3. I'm a Horrible Person

I'm a horrible person for doing this to you all but I think it would be much worse of me to only update every year or half-year when I suddenly get a motivational writing spur. In the future I think I might just write the whole story before posting it so that I don't disappoint readers like this again. But in case you haven't gathered I'm abandoning this story. The plot line wasn't sitting right in my head, my life is busy and my sporadic updates left me feeling guilty. I'm very sorry for doing this but the story is getting ditched.


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